I've been investigating the disappearance of Seo Jin-Ae and stumbled upon a curious threat level 4 Degraded Emissions signal with wreckage (including a single piece of meta-alloy) and six imperial vessels securing the perimeter. One of them had the line I provided above.
While the search for Seo seems to be in a dead end for now, I suspect NPC lines were added to represent the situation.
If you happen to investigate the matter yourself, or just happen to drop into different signal sources now and then (Degraded Emissions, Convoy dispersal patterns, etc.), I ask you to pay close attention to the NPC dialogue. If you come across any suspicious lines possibly associated with Seo, Azimuth or Black Flight, please report them back. Thank you.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/11xazqs/suspicious_npc_dialogue_assistance_needed/